Christianity can be shown to be, not “just as good as” or
even “better than” the non-Christian position, but the only position that does
not make nonsense of human experience. – C. Van Til
I thought I would take some time to share my theological and
philosophical reflections lately as I continue to explore the wonderful
phenomenon of how humans experience knowledge. Unless you are a
dyed-in-the-wool skeptic, you acknowledge that human beings are able to know
and function within this state of affairs we call reality. Oh my, I have
lumped epistemology and metaphysics together in the same sentence. What will
the academic philosopher think of me now? Frankly, prof., I don’t really give a
darn. All in good jest of course. I want to turn your attentions to Romans 1, a
chapter that I believe serves as a basic foundation for a distinctly Christian
epistemology. In this chapter we not only touch on modern controversies of
epistemology, but also on some of the modern moral controversies of human
sexuality; controversies which stem, as we shall discover, from man’s unethical
approach to how he interprets himself, his experience of the world, and yes,
his experience of God.
As he lays the
foundation for what he is about to discuss with the Roman Christians, the
apostle Paul tells them that the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to
faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. He then informs these ancient Christians,
and us I might add, that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteous of men, who by the way, are suppressing the truth
in unrighteous. Now, there is no question about the fact that God is revealing
his wrath. That is clear enough. But why is this happening? Paul uses a very
interesting Greek word to draw his inference. Please remember, this inference
is the revealed truth God. God is revealing these things through Paul. What
Paul writes, God speaks. The Greek word dioti is an adverbial causal
conjunction. It modifies the verb apokalupto. Paul is about to tell us
why God is revealing his wrath from heaven. Dioti is a marker of a
causal connection between the idea in v. 18 and what is about to follow in v. 19.
The reason is linked to man’s knowledge of God. Paul says that that which is
known about God is evident within them. These are they who suppress the truth
in unrighteousness. And who does that? All unregenerate men do that until the
glorious light of the gospel is used to open their eyes and that work is only performed
by the Holy Spirit. This knowledge of God is evident within them for God made
it evident within them. When God makes knowledge evident within someone, I
would say we are safe to assume that they know. They are in possession of
knowledge. They know and experience the truth of God’s existence.
After clearly point out that men are in possession of the
truth of God, and that these men willingly suppress that truth, Paul goes on to
expand on his indictment. And make no mistake about it, this is an indictment.
Paul elaborates on this fact by saying that God’s invisible attributes, his
eternal power, and his divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood
through what has been made. Therefore, they are without excuse. Notice that
Paul did not say that men ought to infer God from what was made. Paul said that
men do actually see clearly and understand something about God’s attributes,
his eternal power, and his divine nature through what has been made. The
experience of being created in God’s image as well as the experience of God’s
created order ensure that all men everywhere know God; they possess the truth
about God by way of their experience of these things. And this experience is
impossible to avoid. It is the experience of reality, God’s created world.
After expanding his indictment, Paul feels the need to
elaborate even further. He says that even though they knew God, they did not
honor him as God nor did they given thanks. Instead, they went down a different
path. They became, humanity became mataioo in their dialogismos.
They become utterly worthless in their reasoning, in their cognitive faculties.
Man possesses the truth about God. He knows God. He understands enough about
God to render him without a defense for this behavior. There is no excuse for
men to reject belief in God. There is no excuse for men to refuse to give God
thanks in all things. None! This behavior is condemned by God as idolatry. The
traded to image of God for a different kind of image. Rather than accepting the
truth that humanity is creating in the image of God and owes God all that he
is, they, we, exchanged that image for a variety of different ones. In modern culture,
we have exchanged the image of God for evolutionary theory. Paul has told us
the wrath of God is being revealed. Now he is about to tell us how that wrath
is being revealed.
Paul uses the Greek conjunction, dio, to tell us how
God is pouring his wrath out on the earth. We saw a hint above when Paul
references the complete uselessness of unregenerate cognitive faculties. Now he
tells us, using this little word which is a logical inferential. It is the
conclusion of his indictment. For this reason, God gave them over to the lusts
of their own hearts. How is God’s wrath revealed from heaven? First, God gave
them over to degrading passions. Atimia is a Greek word that has a sense
of a state of dishonor or disrespect. The Greek word, Pathos employed by
Paul in this instance, carries the sense of a strong desire. In other words,
God’s wrath is revealed in the shameful, dishonorable, and disrespectful strong
desires of humanity. This behavior is evidence of the wrath of God. And it is
brought about because humanity experiences God in everything they do and
refuses to interpret that experience righteously, giving thanks to God for all
they are. But that is not all. Not only is humanity suffering from shameful
strong desires because of its obstinate behavior, there is more.
God not only gave humanity over to degrading passions, he
also gave them over to a depraved mind. Here the Greek word is adokimos,
and it means unqualified, worthless, base. God has given unregenerate men over
to a mind that is worthless. The word for mind carries the sense of
intellectual perception, understanding, you know, the cognitive faculties of
human beings. In this context it means a mindset, a way of thinking, an
attitude, an outlook, or, a worldview. Unregenerate men display the wrath of
God upon the human race by way of embracing a worthless, unqualified, base
worldview. The thought-pattern of unregenerate humanity is debased.
In summary then, we observe the revealed wrath of God on
humanity in the form of unregenerate men having sank into the moral confusion
of even the most basic of human behaviors, sexuality. We witness the degrading
passions of homosexuality not only being freely expressed in our culture, but
we also observe a frightening dogmatic insistence on celebrating such behavior.
Moreover, we observe an irrational and extreme hostility toward those who
disagree with these practices. Second, the wrath of God is also revealed in the
expression of an anti-God, anti-Christian worldview that reduces not only to
moral confusion but also to an irrationalism that only be made sense of in the
Christian worldview. We murder innocent babies in the womb. We celebrate
perverted sexual promiscuity. We affirm men who want to be classified as women.
We are forcing our young girls to share bathrooms and shower facilities with
the opposite sex. And somehow, this is supposed to be progress? What we see in
American culture in particular is the clear revelation of the wrath of God in
the immoral sexual perversion of homosexuality along with the absolute
abandonment of anything remotely resembling a worldview or mindset that makes
sense. In closing, man knows God exists. Man understand something about God
within God’s created order. This knowledge comes to him. Man is the passive
recipient. This knowledge is unavoidable. But man forces his own interpretation
on things. He rejects the Creator, exchanges God for anything but God, to
include evolutionary theory. He interprets everything apart from God refusing
to acknowledge or thank God in any way. God reveals his wrath by turning men
over to degrading passions and lusts as well as depraved minds. Man’s desires
and cognitive faculties are spiraling downward without restraint. And in it
Christians are instructed to interpret this phenomenon as the revelation of the
wrath of God.
This condition makes one wonder why God stopped to save any
of us. Why do that? The purpose of God’s electing and saving grace is located
in God. Indeed, the mystery of the loving-kindness and grace of God is above
and beyond anything we could ever hope to understand.
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